Devlet Bahceli is the chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main coalition partner in Turkey. He is 77 years old.
Once a sworn enemy of Abdullah Ocalan who called for the PKK leader to be hanged, Bahceli became the architect of the Turkish government's outreach to the PKK. He wants peace with the PKK as his legacy. In late 2025 he pushed to accelerate the peace talks and to free Selahattin Demirtas and other Kurdish leaders, putting him at odds with Erdogan, who wants to be able to wash his hands of the process if it unravels.
A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.